Picture Overload & Venting Some Frustrations

Just a few things I missed about Idaho when we lived in Yakima...

Now, there is snow on the ground, and it is fairly cold, but do you see the SUN SHINING? Yes, Idaho has bright, sunny winter days. It makes you much more likely to bundle up and brave the outdoors because of that tempting Vitamin D. In Yakima it was gray for several months in the winter. I swear I went several weeks without even seeing the sun. (Now this isn't a year round thing there, just in the winter. And don't get me wrong. We loved Yakima and miss many things about it. The early onset of springtime for starters...)

I also missed this stuff. Yes, I do like a white Christmas. Preferably deep and fluffy.

Our porch. Yay. Oh, how I missed you snow. But now I am ready for SPRING!

Why you should not fall asleep with an ink stamp on your hand.

My grumpy little guy...

This girl is like Miss America. She loves to wave.

Isn't she beautiful? I think so.

This girl is going to have a MAJOR gap between her two front teeth. The dentist said that the gums between them are pretty thick and may have to be clipped later in life if they don't allow her teeth to move in. Poor girl. But for now I think they are so sweet.

Sledding in the house.

By the way, Amity has been walking/running for quite some time now. She really took off around Christmas and has been going non-stop ever since. Just thought I'd update.

Like sister, like brother.

Some of Russell's new passions:

-"cooking" with my ingredients in the kitchen (note photo above)

-ninja turtles (he will be having a TMNT themed birthday party this month)

-making rockets with every peice of tupperware that I have...EVERY...DAY...

-listening to books on tape

-sounding out simple words (The other day he sounded out "press" on his seatbelt, and then yelled up to me that his seat belt said "press". He is a smart little 3 year old.)

-"grocery shopping" or basically, emptying out grandma's pantry cupboards into a laundry baket

-wrestling with his sister...and the Ward family saga continues with the next generation...

-surprising his mother with the precocious things that he says

This girl has a few passions in life too:

-the dishwasher

-the refridgerator

-the bathroom drawers

-the garage

-the coat closet

My beautiful cousins and I at the Ward Family Christmas party.

My sweet grandma.

Opening presents at Grandma Moulton's house.

Instant pro.

K-This isn't even all.

Spoiled kids. Mostly by grandparents.

Okay. VENTING PART 1:

I did a terrible job taking pictures at Christmastime. None of the tree. None of Christmas morning. None of the Ward fam at the cabin in Island Park...NONE. Partly because I forget. Partly because I'm being lazy. But also because taking too many pictures makes me feel like I'm missing out on the experience. Do you know what I mean. Like I am a bystander observing and documenting but not really a part of it.

Does anyone else feel this way?

Now, I shouldn't let this become an excuse not to take pictures. Pictures are important, and add so much to the home and to nostalgia later on in life. I need to find a balance.

I really envy those families whose homes are filled with beautiful pictures of their loved ones. It makes their house seem so much more intimate and homey. It brings a sort of happy spirit, and you get to know the family through the pictures. I love it.

Just something I need to work on...

I told you that the girl loves to wave.

Catching a football from daddy.

And throwing it back.

My knight in shining armor. I knew I'd find a use for that cardboard!

Charming, isn't he?

She turned 1 in January. See what I mean, though? I didn't even get a picture of the cake before she smashed it.

Just chillin' after inhaling a lot of cake.

With cousin, Ellie.

Again, she loves dishwashers and she loves to wave.

When I put gel in her hair, it curls pretty well. She has a little flippy curl in the back. I'm crossing my fingers that she will get some curls from Travis, but I don't know. My straight hair is so dominant...we'll have to see...

Can you tell who our favorite team in the whole wide world is? Go Cougs!

We recently met up with some of our best friends from BYU. We stayed in a hotel in Lehi and went to the dino museum and to a BYU basket ball game where we got to see Jimmer the Great!
Travis wants to name our next man-child Jimmer...hmmm...it is kind of cute.

Yet another failed attempt at picture taking. I did not get one shot of Paul and Melinda, our friends.

Our main man, Cosmo.

Okay. I have hit the JACKPOT at DI lately. Some wealthy family is dropping off all of their old clothes, and I am picking them up. All of these items where 1-3 dollars. All of the pants are Old Navy, Gap, Children's Place, Osh Kosh...that is a brand new boys swimming suit that still had the tag on it. Those black Addidas Sambas in the back...like $50 shoes. A lot of the pants are lined for cold Idaho weaher. Man, I am so excited!






Here are some crafts I've been working on. I got the ideas from the Idea Room.
Cute blog.

Venting Frustrations #2:

Mental Clutter. I have so much mental clutter I can't handle it anymore. I blame my mother wholely and entirely. I know that I got it from her. (Love you, Mom!) I start so many projects that I either don't finish or take me FOREVER to finish. I read about 10 books at the same time. I put things off. (Although I'm not nearly as bad as I used to be.) I start cleaning one room, and then I see something in the next room that I didn't finish, so I go in and look at that. Then and hour later I remember that I was cleaning the kitchen, so I go back. But while I'm there, I notice the bills sitting on the bar, so I start to pay them...It goes on and on. At the end of the day I have a to-do list where everything is half done but not finished, so I can't cross it off!!!! (Okay, now, not everyday. I do get things done once in a while, but far too often.)

Does anyone else out there suffer from this condition?

I've been reading a lot of things about productivity lately, and I really believe now that most of the time multi-tasking is bad. It is more efficient to put all of the focus that you can into ONE project at a time, check it off your list, get it out of your mind, and move on. Otherwise you just have too much mental clutter, you do a half-way job, and you don't reap the rewards for your work as quickly. Also, when you try to spend time with family and check e-mail at the same time, I really don't think your family gets as much from your company, am I right?

I am resolving to be more focused during my days and direct my energy to one task at a time as often as possible!!!

A late update

Here are some fun pictures of Thanksgiving and visiting Grandpa and Grandma Moulton for Christmas. For some reason I don't have hardly any good pictures of Russ. His face is always turned or hidden.

Amity is 10 months here, and she took her first steps this month. She is almost 11 months now and isn't full blown walking yet, but definitely taking little baby steps between mom and dad. And she walks like a pro when you hold her hand. This is her with Grandpa Moulton.

This picture reminds me so much of one of Travis when he was a baby. I can see both of us in her, but certain facial expressions remind me of one or the other. This is more like Travis because my serious faces always had a nice deep scowl.

She is such a happy little girl. We love her so much.

And here is one of the only pics we got of our little Russ. He's in his new church clothes that he got for Christmas. Thanks, Grandma M.!

Amity is an early talker. She has really surprised us by how early she is saying words, and we can really understand her. So far she has said:

-mommy, mama *

-daddy, dada*

-hi* (while waving)

-bye* (while waving)

-mmmmm (referring to food that she is eating)

-kiss

-no

-baby
-yay!!
-and I SWEAR she said banana

The words with the stars she says all the time. She even puts bye and dada together and says bye dada! She said that to me the other day and I had to remind her that I am mama. It is so cute when she crawls all over the house looking for her daddy yelling his name as she goes. She is usually whining when she says mama because she is hungry or wants to be picked up. She hasn't said Russ yet, at least not that I could make out, but I think she is trying.



She is our little bundle of joy, such a people person, and so funny. Love you, Amity. What a fun holiday with our little sweeties.

Halloween and such...

Russell stuck his hand on the hot stove and burned it pretty badly. Well, he learned his lesson I guess. The little stinker. This picture doen't even show the other two fingers.



Amity was a cute little cow for Halloween.




Russell was a super-hero.



Mity is starting to balance without holding on to anything. She is getting ready to walk. What a sweetie!






Russell has been really into tricks lately. He can do a flip on the tramp and the other day he actually did an aerial type thing. We were pretty impressed. But he did fall on his head a couple of times, so we told him that trick might be a little too advanced for him yet.


Russell has been saying a lot of funny things lately. The other day when we were at the fabric store, I let him sit at the catalog table and talk to another little boy while I browsed. Well, right as I was walking by, I heard him say, "I don't have a mother or a sister." Well, that is just great. Amity and I had been disowned, and we were in the same room as him!! And then the boy asked if he had any brothers, and Russ of course answered, "Yeah. 26 of them." His imaginary brothers are really getting on my nerves lately.

Then later at my dad's house, my dad popped out with his beloved Boise State hat on and said, "Russ! Look at my awesome hat!! The Boise State Broncos!!" And Russell said, "Grandpa, you are OBSESSED with that hat." I didn't even know he knew that word. We really have to watch it because he listens to every word we say!

Fall Fun

Why I have been such a bad blogger lately. (I DO have a good excuse.)

I'll tell you why. Because I have been on a business venture of my own. I've started a little preschool in my home.

There was a perfect little room down in the basement. (That is part of the reason we went with this house instead of getting a smaller apartment.

I've named it Pumpkin Patch Preschool. If you can't guess, it's because I love fall, pumpkins, Halloween and all of that sooooo much that I decided I wanted to think about it all year.

I have really missed teaching since I've started staying home, and this gives me the perfect little fix. It is only twice a week for 2 1/2 hours, and gives me just the right creative outlet. Plus it brings in a little extra money each month.



I know it's not super fancy or anything. But I think it is pretty good since I'm just starting out. It takes time to build up your stuff and get things just how you want them. This is my little reading corner. And I use those clothespins to hang up pictures. I had these chairs in my classroom when I taught second grade.



Here is my table (Thanks, Cuz!!). And you can also see my word wall.



Centers. Games. Art supplies.




And here we have circle time. Travis made the white board. And yes, I made the lovely curtains. The chair I got at D.I. for $2. I spraypainted it and made it nice again. It was pretty beat up.

Anyway, so now you know what I have been up to. It takes some time to write lesson plans and make all the materials. Next year it won't be nearly as stressful because I can use my stuff from the previous year.

I am so glad that I had the guts to do the preschool. I almost didn't do it just because I was scared. I wanted to, but it is scary putting yourself out there and advertising and all that. But I talked to a lot of other ladies that were doing it, many of them without a teaching degree or anything, and I thought, "Why couldn't I do that if they can. That's what I got my degree in, right?" Anyway. It took some courage, and I had to go into it with the attitude that I might fail, but that I would at least learn something in the process that would make me a more competant person.




Awesome craigslist finds. The bed frame and the bedding. Russ loves them!!

Daddy's static electricity experiment.

We made these!!!! This one is mine. I found the tutorial here.

It was so fun! It cost about seven dollars for all three. Get the material at Home Depot.

Amity has two teeth. They are so cute.

Kay, so these pictures are way out of order. Oh well, I'm not switching them around. It takes too long.

My new pet spider. Trav made the web on our front porch. We want to make the trick-or-treaters squeal!!!

Awwww....

Amity has been standing up and walking around household items for about two months now. She should be walking fairly soon.

Mom is getting back into her excercise routines. (About time.) She's got to lose the rest of that baby weight. (It would help if I would stop making cake balls.)

At the Utah State Fair.

Big horsey.

A true cougar fan. Don't pay attention to the face.

Mitty crawled in but couldn't get back out. Look at her teethy little grin.


Well, that's what we have been up to. Preschool is settling in now, so hopefully I will be a better blogger. Please, don't give up on me yet!!!!